Prosecutor sought death penalty in '84 for alleged Morgan Co. killer

Wednesday

Sep 29, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2010 at 9:01 PM

A former Sangamon County state’s attorney says that if he’d had his way 26 years ago, convicted murderer Steven Mark Pryer (pictured at left and inset) would not have been alive to do what authorities say he did Aug. 18 — fatally shoot Diann Hoagland outside her rural Morgan County home.

RHYS SAUNDERS

A former Sangamon County state’s attorney says that if he’d had his way 26 years ago, convicted murderer Steven Mark Pryer would not have been alive to do what authorities say he did Aug. 18 — fatally shoot Diann Hoagland outside her rural Alexander home when she stumbled upon him burglarizing it.

After his arrest Tuesday, Pryer, 47, of the 1200 block of North Oaklane Road, was still being held Wednesday at the Sangamon County Jail with bond set at $2 million. The Morgan and Sangamon county state’s attorney’s offices were working on a transfer arrangement.

Pryer faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of residential burglary.

In March 1984, Pryer was looking at a possible death sentence for the November 1982 slayings of David and Mary Davidson of Springfield, the adoptive parents of his cohort, Ralph Lee Davidson.

Both men were ultimately sentenced to 40 years in prison each. However, they each served fewer than 20 years because of day-for-day good time, a since-changed policy that allowed convicted murders and other offenders to have their sentences reduced by a day for each “good day” served in prison.

Death penalty sought

Bill Roberts, a former state’s attorney who prosecuted the 1982 murder case, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he asked for Pryer to be put to death following one of the most heinous cases Roberts had ever dealt with.

Circuit Judge Jerry Rhodes, who died in 2008, denied the request, saying Pryer, then 20, was too young for the death penalty.

“I would have had no problem pulling the switch on this guy,” Roberts said Wednesday.

The Davidsons’ adopted son, Ralph Lee Davidson, then 17, told police he came up with the idea of killing his parents so he and Pryer would have money, a car and a hassle-free place to live. Pryer stabbed the pair as many as 20 times, and Davidson beat them with a crowbar.

Davidson pleaded guilty in September 1983, and Pryer also pleaded guilty to the murders during his trial in January 1984.

Two months later, Roberts and Rhodes were at odds after Pryer’s sentencing, according to State Journal-Register coverage of the case.

“It’s obvious the court had its mind made up (beforehand),” Roberts was quoted as saying in response to questions about the proceeding, in which Rhodes refused to hear the state’s argument for the death penalty.

“I felt that there was only one appropriate penalty, and that was the death penalty,” Roberts said in 1984.

Rhodes cited Pryer’s age in sentencing him to 40 years, allowing credit for good conduct in prison as well as the time he already served in jail. He was paroled in 2002 and discharged from parole in 2005.

Rhodes also silenced Roberts when he tried to cite other sentences — considerably tougher — handed down by other judges in Sangamon County during the early 1980s. Rhodes said at the time that the cases were not relevant to Pryer’s.

“Throughout my career as a prosecutor, I took the position that it was my job to decide what was an appropriate punishment,” Roberts said Wednesday. “We (he and Rhodes) were just poles apart, philosophically.”

A legal quandary

There also was a legal quandary at the time of both men’s sentencing hearings, according to Roberts.

Pryer was eligible for the death penalty because the case involved multiple murders within a single incident.

Roberts said he remembers Pryer being the ringleader.

“Pryer …was the more culpable, the leader,” he said. “This particular murder was one of the most senseless and brutal I ever saw, a totally stupid situation.”

State law at the time stated: “if a defendant…is found guilty of murdering more than one victim, the court shall sentence the defendant to a term of natural life imprisonment.”

The rule left the court no alternative in determining the sentence to be imposed upon Davidson, who at 17 was too young for the death penalty.

However, in June 1983, the First District Appellate Court had negated the mandatory life sentence for multiple murder convictions.

“These guys were young, but it was a multiple homicide, and I did what I thought was right, and the court did what it thought was right,” Roberts said. “We were still fleshing out at that time sentences, what was reasonable, whether the death penalty was appropriate.”

Sangamon County’s current state’s attorney, John Milhiser, said Wednesday sentencing guidelines took a very sharp turn during the 1990s.

“As it stands today, if you’re convicted of killing more than one person, it’s natural life,” he said. “For murder cases, you’re going to serve 100 percent of the sentence.”

Interrupted burglary

Pryer’s new murder charge allegedly also stems from a desire to steal.

Morgan County Sheriff Randy Duvendack has declined to say what evidence ties Pryer to Hoagland’s murder, but he said burglary is believed to be the motive.

“It appears she just interrupted a burglary and, unfortunately, this happened,” he said.

Hoagland spoke to her husband by cell phone about 11 a.m. Aug. 18, a Wednesday. She told him she had been walking in the area and that a white pickup truck was in their driveway as she returned home.

Duvendack has said authorities believe Pryer acted alone.

Rhys Saunders can be reached at 788-1521. Staff writer Amanda Reavy contributed to this story.

Nov. 21, 1982 killings of David and Mary Davidson

* Steven Pryer and Ralph Davidson use a key to get into Davidson’s parents’ house at 3337 S. Park St. about 2:30 a.m.

* Dave Davidson is sitting on the couch. When he sees the pair, he takes a swing at Pryer.

* Ralph Davidson holds his father while Pryer repeatedly stabs the man.

* Pryer walks into the rear bedroom and stabs Mary Davidson.

* One of the two men hits Mary Davidson in the head with a crowbar, joking about “the good distance he got on her false teeth,” according to former Sangamon County state’s attorney Bill Roberts, who prosecuted the case.

* The two men leave the home.

* The two men throw a knife and crowbar away near the railroad tracks along Wabash Avenue.

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